tonight, the president said he is mottestly optimistic about a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, which would mean avoiding automatic tax increases and spending cuts come, you know, 1. the president spoke to the nation this evening after an hour-long meeting with congressional leaders at the white house. democrat and republican leaders have agreed to extend jobless benefits and some tax increases. they appear to remain deadlocked on who exactly will pay those higher taxs. we have two reports tonight, beginning with major garrett at the white house. major, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, jeff. two things are clear tonight that were not clear this morning-- progress is real and if a deal is reached, it will be far smaller than any of the key players envisioned only a couple weeks ago. is this deal, if it's to be reached, will not the so-called grand bargain with trillions of dollars of deficit reduction. in fact, jeff, it's not even clear this deal-- again, if there is one-- would stop the across-the-board spending cuts for the defense department and other government programs. it